My Favorite Beer Stores in Vienna

Those of you who know me know that I love beer

And being a man of refined (beer) taste I often find myself touring the local breweries and beer shops when visiting a city as opposed to dancing the night away with a cocktail in hand. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy dancing the night away it’s just most craft breweries aren’t accompanied by a night club. Being that this is the case I usually find myself sampling the tasty local beer offerings before heading into a night of dancing where I’ll most likely compromise my taste bud morals.

Some years ago I found myself in Vienna only briefly and on that trip I had mostly the local staples Stiegl and Gosser. On my next visit to Vienna it was to get married – thank you, thank you – and while that week was a bit rushed I found time to visit a beer store called Ammersin Magazine Wien5. The selection was quite great and I was able to pick up a lot of things I’d never seen in the States which excited me. On my way back to NYC my suitcase contained my suit and about 12 beers wrapped in my standard clothes. On my next trip I found a store that seemed aptly suited for someone like me called BeerLovers.

When you walk into Beerlovers you’ll notice a neat layout of beers arranged perfectly by type and region. I unfortunately didn’t take a photo of it but there’s also a large walk in refrigerated section. This place is indeed remarkable. The discount section absolutely blew my mind – I literally couldn’t believe some of the offers were real. Buy one, get three free for Stone’s Ruiniation IPA? Sign me up twice. In addition to all of this there’s also a home brewing section. I may have shed a tear or two thinking about how I recently had to sell all my brewing equipment when leaving NYC.

BeerLovers is located in a very central location on Gumpendorfer Str. 35 so I was happy I wouldn’t have to trek out to Ammersin Magazine Wien5. Ammersin is actually an alcohol distributor in Austria that, I’d come to find out, is the owner of BeerLovers. Shown below is all of Ammersin’s storefronts.

Up next, we have Biergreissler

Greißler translates to corner shop – usually pretty small and privately owned. Biergreissler is the largest “mom and pop” beer shop in Vienna. While I love Beerlovers, I also like supporting the smaller shops too. I found the staff here to be really friendly and knowledgeable on all the beers, breweries, and even brewing in itself. The location is also rather central as well being at Eggenstrasse 1.

On a final note

I always find it funny that in the States our standard beers are all trash (Budweiser, Coors, Natural Light… you get the idea) but our craft beer game is on point. In most countries I find that the local beers are all decently quaffable while the craft beer scene is gaining momentum. Whatever beer you’re drinking in Vienna I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If you’re paying close enough attention you’ll notice that a craft beer here is usually around 2 euros from a store while the standard selection is often less than a Euro. Most of the big breweries even offer up some solid offerings of beer styles you don’t see too often in the States such as Zwicklbier.

And don’t forget to drop off your bottles at your closest grocery store! The bottle deposit machines are usually located in the back and you’ll end up getting something around 15-25 cents back for each bottle. a receipt will print out that you then take to the cashier or just use for….another beer perhaps? It’s so easy to do!